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X3:TC New Players Guide (No Spoilers)

Ok so without giving stuff away I will try to give a rough beginers guide without spoiling anything but the features of the game as the learning curve can be somewhat daunting.

For the Ultimate Guide, simple ask questions on the X3:TC forums. You are guarenteed a quick and honest response, unlike the majority of gaming forums.

Basic Tips

Ship Controls Default - The new default one which uses right mouse fire, left mouse or space to fly. This however only uses manual firing and not bore sight firing which you need to use for auto-aim when you purchase flight command software I. I insist you do this first and then bind right click fire to bore sight fire.

Basic Combat - W,A,S,D These are your friends, just like in FPS games strafing is king. Keep to a simple clockwise motion 3 seconds on each key and you will soon dodge the slow HEPT gunfire (green stuff :P). Of course if they have beam weapons like khaak this doesn't work so well as they pew pew you.

Nearest Target/Cycle Enemies - Shift+T OR Home OR End will give you the nearest target to your ship, this can also be a missile which are very simple to shoot down if you follow the reticle.

Active Guidance - This helps you track the current mission you are one by highlighting the object your want with yellow brackets. To activate it press P then My Missions (enter) and select the mission you want guidance on by clicking on it and selecting Activate Guidance.

GOD - This is what players refer to as the Game Engine Economy self healing itself. Sooner or later you will find a Xenon/Khaak Invasion has settled itself into a zone and cleared it out of all Stations leaving a mass of debris. When these are killed off or moved on their way the Game Engine will respawn stations over time and the trading stations etc. This will also happen with Asteroids.

j key - This is your friend, this sets SETA speed, basically 6x faster than normal, you can go higher upto 10x however your PC may say **** you or if in a fast ship 300+ m/s you may well crash into an asteroid while your PC is saying **** you I cant process all this

Basic Navigation - Hit the . key and you will see a sector map, hit the , key and you get a universe map. On the sector map you see a radius around your ship (if in space). Terran start you have a duplex scanner which is a smal range radius, buying a Triplex scanner will increase this a lot. This is your eyes on the universe and is essential early on to uncover new stations and gates.

Gates - These are generally easy to find, they will mostly be on the N E S W access on the grid. Sometimes they will be visible, sometimes not so much and sometimes hidden cunningly behind an asteroid.

shift+J key - Jumpdrive. Essential item to purchase for your ship, however only available in a few places. This requires energy to jump however, 5 per sector but space is big, I think X3:TC is 120 sectors.

Starting Ship - This is generally pretty bad, a basic model of an M4 (if Terran Start). This is a light fighter, something thats not meant to take on big ships as you've weak shields and guns. However flown correctly you can take down an M6 if it does not have a rear gun.

The Terran Hate Me? - The Terran start is an odd one, they just don't like you snooping about. Best to wait until the plot tells you to go somewhere in Terran space before looking yourself else you'll be shot. Maybe Stalin won the war in this universe?

Everyone Hates Me? - Maybe your shooting anything that moves. The whole game is reputation based. Press P and p again, here you can see your titles which tells you what each race you've discovered think of you. These also unlock different starts. eg. 100% hated by all unlocks khaak (used to).

Autopilot Docking - While this is lazy mode it sometimes goes a bit wrong. Especially if your docking at a large solar plant it has a tendancy to slam you into the solar panels, so best to keep watch

Claiming Ships - Ok so your in combat shooting the crap out of that pirate and the ship turns red to blue STOP FIRING! This means the pilot has bailed out and you can now capture that ship. To do this fly slowly upto it (get real close) and hit shift+e this will eject you from your ship putting you in a space suit. Fly close to the ship, target and Claim. Then jump back in your own ship. Simply return the ship to a ship yard and repair or sell, upto you. Later on you can buy System Overide Software, this claims a ship but from a 5k range without you needing to eject.

How to Change Ship - So you've claimed or been given a new ship, there's a few ways to switch ships. The first obvious one is if you're claiming one then press Shift-E and you will enter the ship targeted if in range. Another method is have both ships docked at the same station and select Advanced -> Change Ship. Another method later on is using the Transport Device available for purchase which can beam you between ships within a certain range.

How to transfer freight - So you own a few ships and have that 1 Jumpdrive that cost you a lot. Simply dock both ships and go to Advanced -> Freight Exchange. Then shift the freight left/right between the ships. An alternative method to this is to use a Transport Device which costs 56k and allows freight movement at a limited range without docking. A third method is to use a Player HQ or Warehouse however I'm not sure these made the move to TC yet.

Repair Laser! - So this is new to X, basically you can eject in some safe space and repair your ship with a repair laser in your space suit (press fire). It takes a bloody age and is obviously easier to dock at shipyard and pay for repairs but in the early stages its a viable option to make more cash on that knackered out pirate ship you just captured.

Salvage Insurance - A must for early on when you made your first few hundred thousand. Save anywhere in space per 3k. Having to dock each time gets a real ball ache.

Satellites - If your planning on trading at all a good idea is to drop a satellite in each sector. This basically tells the game you have a ship in sector and you can now see the stock/price of everything in that sector as if you were in it. Advanced Sats simply give you a bigger range to see on the map.

Deploying Satellites - Obviously you need to buy or build them first but there is 2 ways to deploy satellites. One is to fly to a sector and do it yourself via opening your freight bay (Shift+F) and selecting the satellites then dropping 1 into space. The other more player friendly method is to have a ship do it for you say an Argon Discoverer. To do this send the ship to a Teladi Equipement Dock and buy Explorer Software. Once equiped buy the satellites with the same ship and you will have a new option in Navigate Menu called Deploy Satellites. Select a sector and an area (middle of map) and off he will go covering the X-Verse

Exploring Zones - Sometimes it can be tedious to fly around a huge zone trying to find them gates, however your troubles are solved! Send a fast ship, say Argon Discoverer to buy explorer software from a Teladi Equipment Dock. Then you will have a new option in Navigate Menu for this ship, order him to fly to that huge dust cloud filled zone and explore. It asks for parameters so enter 99999 and he will cover the entire zone area. It may also be a good idea to equip him with a Triplex Scanner.

Border and Core Sectors - Each Nation has it's core sectors where shipyards etc reside. You can not enter these if the race doesn't like you very much else they will attack you. Simply raise your rep by shooting some pirates, trading or doing missions for their border sectors.

Xenon Sector - Don't **** with them or you'll die. These places will generally have capital ships along with a 46" LCD screen load of fighters. This is for later on unless your feeling frisky.

Trading:-

Obvious basics really, buy cheap sell high. Items will always be at their cheapest if the stock bar is full and will always buy for the most if stock bar is low. You obviously cant buy Energy from one solar plant and sell to another as they are producing it so run the energy to a weapons plant or something that consumes a lot of it.

Starting as Terran a simple single sector route is in scale plate green. Story will guide you here early on and theres simple Flower Farm -> Sun Oil sales route. However this zone is adjacent to a Xenon sector and can get dangerous.

Sector Trader and Universal Trader - You get this option when you buy a Trade command Software III (500k). Sector trade does as it says, select it and click a sector and it will do it's best to buy low and sell high everything in that sector. The pilot will gain experience per trade varying on money earnt and eventually at lvl 6 you can tell him to become a universal trader. These guys fly all over your explored zones buying and selling just like before but with a larger scope. Eventually these guys will earn you a fortune, but they need clear space to work and are pretty dumb if attacked. If you find yourself losing them in an area then you need to setup a patrol of some kind to defend the territory.

Factories - Simple rule really, only build if needed. For example if an area is always low on energy, build a solar plant. However that plant will need crystals to produce energy and that crystal plant requires food etc etc. You need to do your homework when buying stations. However a simple start would be a Silicon Plant which only requires energy.

Asteroids - You can't miss them really, huge balls of rock. Silicon, Ore, Ice (new) and Nvidium. You can build mines on these or mobile mine them. They can be blown apart and scooped up and can be towed to a station your building in the sector. If they get destroyed GOD will eventually replace them.

Tractor Beam - You can purchase a Tractor Beam at some Equipment Docks. This is a mounted weapon (rear) which requires a fairly big ship like an M6 so not something you'll do early on. With it you can tow asteroids into place out of a cluster for easy access or drag a station you built in the wrong place.

How to Buy Stations - You will need a TL class ship to do this, they are very cheap to hire and easy to spot since they're huge. If unsure fly upto one, press i and see if the class is TL. There's usually one in or around the sector of a shipyard. Simply Comm him and ask to transport something, he will state a fee per zone and then Comm again and ask to dock at shipyard. Once docked you can then purchase the station and tell him to fly to sector you wish it built. Alternatively you can buy your own TL which range from 9-40mil. Originally many people used the Split Elephant TL as a mini carrier as it was well shielded, had a few fighters and good weapons.

Stations - You need a fairly high faction to start building Stations not to mention a big bank account. For Example a simple single station would be a Silicon Mine. This will require power constantly and you might want to also sell the Silicon produced and for this you'll need a TS of some form like a Mercury to be assigned its Home Station to it. Once this is done you need commodity logistics software and tell it to commercially represent the station (In Trade Menu). However it's best off to start with to jump start it's economy by buying up any initial Primary resources required, usually Energy.

Illegal Wares - If you've played previous games this may come to a shock to you as Illegal Wares are now very much taboo. You can no longer build Space Weed Productions in the likes of Elena's Fortune as the Argon Fleet will not stand for it. Soon enough you'll be faced with a Defence fleet attacking your station. You will now have to build and protect your illegal stations in the Pirate Sectors. If you or your transports are caught carrying illegal wares by a scan the security forces will shoot you or your freighter down.

Complex Maths - You may have noticed stations come in M, L and XL if this has changed ignore me since I'm at work ;P Simple math calculation M = 2, L = 5, XL = 10. So when building complexes you need to take these sums into account, there was a previous very good Complex Calculator out and I will try find a new one for TC. But basics are if your building a Space Fuel M you will need a wheat farm M or L. If you use an L then you can obviously add another Space Fuel M and still have enough wheat.

Complex Building - Now we are talking big money, these cost a lot as you can be connecting 2+ stations together. For a full closed loop Solar Power Plant XL you're looking at a cost of around 100 million. However it will then supply power to whatever you want (within reason). To build a complex simply place 2 stations near each other and use a complex construction kit here which is also bought from a shipyard. If its the creation of a complex it will then ask where to place the terminal (where ships fly to dock). Make sure this is nice and clear so ships don't crash into your station giving you reputation lose! To add more simply join another station with the complex construction kit. The hard part and probably the most anoying in the entire game is lining it up right so its neat else you end up with spaghetti complexes.

Combat - Protection ones seem straight forward, defend an object be it station or ship against xx amount of enemy. Early on this is easy but gets hard as soon as your combat rank increases. eg. An avaerage patrol mission for me currently spawns 4 M6 with a lot of fighters. I die.

Delivery - Fairly simple, fly here collect ship dead in space and return it. Be careful though some say its stolen which means you need to capture it back which can be very hard.

Build - Forget these early on, they are for the rich however can be fun late on with your own TL and empire.

Follow - I find these missions incredibly anoying. Basically you follow a target at around 10k range and at some gate a small group of pirates will jump you while you must continue to follow the target. If he gets to a long range he will simply gate away and the mission is failed.

I've finished the story, is that it? - No No No. The best part about all X games is the freedom. You can do anything, be anything, kill anyone. You can build armies, Build an empire, Take on a Nation it's upto you but it wont be easy You can also work towards unlocking other start types, for example being a Pirate.

Strange Things Happening? - Are you randomly blowing up, losing ships without notice, losing cargo somehow? You sir are a Pirate and I don't mean the space kind. You could also have something interfering with your Copy Protection system. This is a symptom of TAGES.

Advanced Combat

Combat Rank - So you think your hot stuff as it's all easy combat so far, well take a note of that combat rank increase you keep getting, as soon it will get much harder as ships begin to use a full array of weapons on you instead of sitting still like sheep.

Khaak - These are mean mofo's and not to be treated lightly. Sure you kill the fighters and scouts. When corvettes and destroyers come knocking with their big kyon beams you'd best run unless your packing some serious firepower to compete.

Pirates - As you develope so do the pirates and soon they will be fighting with the new Plasma weapons. Easy to spot really if you get within range, It's a damn big flame thrower! This thing will eat your shields in seconds if you stay around to watch the pretty colours. Even that big fancy M3+ you bought for 5mil!

Xenon LX - Previously the best fighter in the game and firm favourite of 80% of the X population as there fighter they use. A group of these can really **** you up.Xenon PX Upgrade on P, not so easy to destroy but still not that hard given practise.Xenon Q The bigger brother and much meaner, this can be very hard to fight. A cheese method is to run like a girl with a rear cannon doing the dmg while dodging his fire.Xenon K & J Big nasty and lots of PPC's (Big white balls of death) Previously though you could take them with a long fight and a lot of gun fire as the PPC's are slow moving. Not tried it in TC yet though.

Borading Crews
Ok this is not as tricky as it sounds, heck in the Terran Plot you even get a tutorial to help!
So the basics:
1. You need to take the shield down to below 10% and only for when the Marines are actually boarding.
2. You command the marines to board via Command, Piracy, Board.
3. Once they board it's out of your hands and upto the skill levels of the marines you send. You no longer need to damage the shields.
4. If the fights going badly you need to send more marines (can only be a maximum of 6 on board the vessel) and again drop shields to 10% to allow boarding.
5. If successful you will now own a new capital ship.
6. Profitsssss

So who can you board? Well any ship, of course should you try it on a friendly you will take a Reputation hit however it is possible to capture some ships in the game which can not be bought, for example the Terran Valkyre M0. Of course this won't be an easy task.

Spoiler Below - Highlight To ReadTerran Plot HelpScanning Pirate Base - Nothing fancy needed, Fly upto the base and be within 500m. Yes this is very close.
Jumping to Aldrin - To do this you must use a navigation command "jump to sector", Shift+J for Jumpdirve does not work.
Docking at Earth Taurus - You need to do this manually as auto pilot takes you outside the defensive corridor. Simply Comm the station, request docking, manually fly to the green dot and slow down! It will then grab you when you get to it. Worth doing on all Terran stations.

Spoiler Below - Highlight To ReadOperation Final Fury
Jumping to Khaak - Same as with Aldrin, jump to sector and leave auto-pilot. Drop an advanced sat then jumpe to sector back to Argon Military Sector.

This is something I've seen banded round a bit by those that have completed the Terran Campaign and now have those free ships including the very good M6. Sure you can do those Patrols that have the odd Xenon P and PX in or maybe the odd Khaak Patrol however this is all building you to end game play.

When your combat rank increases to the higher levels these missions will become a real challenge. Forget those 4-5 M6's your getting right now, you'll be getting 4-5 M1's and M2's all the fighters that go with it and 20 M6's. You'd best be building up a real fleet to meet this challenge and trust me, if this is a Khaak fleet you'd best have an exceptional fleet or you'll be taking some heavy loses.

To manage that kind of fleet you are going to need a full production resupply chain for the weapons, missiles, ammunition, shields. For those kind of factories to keep up the production you'll need a whole lot of Power, Mines, Food Production etc etc.

Let's not forget while you're building up to this you might be attacked for Xenon, Khaak, Yaki and Pirates all have their own agenda and will not always pop up for missions alone. They will invade sectors and if your factories are in they way you'd best have a good defensive force ready and waiting.

A few quotes of people currently playing at Warlord Rank:

Heh, the Xenon Invasion missions just get crazier and crazier. I've already posted about having 46 Ps flying around Bad Debt after the invasion was over.

This time I took an invasion mission after I had made Warlord. Would you like some Ks to go with those Ps? Yes please.

There are now 19 Xenon Ks flying in the Wall. I'm guessing the Argon aren't going to get any energy anymore.

Decided to get properly moving on some patrol missions tonight after much talk of people earning 20+ mil a mission. Well after a few and feeling cocky I now have 96 P's on my last count living in Thuruk's Pride. Triple that for the L's, M's and N's.

Ironically its the L's that do more damage with so many using PBE's which are near insta hit weapons you get hurt fast!

Continuing on now when I hit Vindicator rank there was a few K's and loads of P's spawning and now I'm at Warlord there's a whole lot of K's spawning next Patrol. Luckily I now have a Boreas almost fully equiped and ready to go!